General rules of thumb:
-Any 4-door looks slower than the equivalent 2-door.
-Any wagon looks slower than the equivalent 4-door.
Having said that, even a 2-door can look sleepy provided you buy the right one. You need to avoid the performance models completely--no Monte SS, no 442, and
definitely no Buick with any sort of hood bulge or turbo badges. Instead, buy what looks like grandpa's car--the non-performance base model with full wheel covers, vinyl roof, and a bench seat.
Perhaps something similar to this '77
LeSabre:
"Sleeper" is all about visuals. It's not a body style, per se, but more of fooling the eye to the power beneath.Literally, ANYTHING can be a sleeper. You just have to resist the urge to put black wheels on it and a loud exhaust.
I'd look for a weathered car (not rusty), with peeling purple tint (hides enough, and hard to look at), non-descript or absolutely horrible wheels, quiet (with vacuum operated exhaust dump(s))
Exactly. Once you have grandpa's car,
don't touch the exterior. No wheel swaps, no slamming the suspension, no nothing. Keep it looking just like the factory built it so that nobody will give it a second glance.
As for your modifications, you need to
hide every last one of them. If your new small block's EFI system has a fancy controller screen,
don't go sticking it on top of your dashboard--hide it in the glovebox. No tachometer?
Don't go buy a salad plate-sized AutoMeter unit and hang it off the steering column--just rely on your automatic to do its job and upshift as it should. If your finished car is parked and any enthusiast walks past it, glances inside and sees something that catches their eye and/or makes them look closer, you've failed.
Trust me. This is all coming from someone who used to mop the local streets with a turbocharged Dodge Caravan.
(I also bracket raced it for five years.)
🙂
